Saturday, February 27, 2016

Goff mounted an attack on John Key via a spurious claim that should he be elected Mayor of Auckland he would take the Remuera Golf Club's land and use it to develop 'affordable housing.'

If you read the comments at Kiwiblog you will see what a tissue of lies this was. I'm surpised he was not able to point to some 'strikingly attractive' person in the rocess. (Remember that slimy debacle?'

The guts of his claim was that the land belongs to the Council and generates little if any revenue 'for the ratepayer' and is closed to the public.

Thanks to Kiwiblog, the voters of Auckland now are properly informed.

1 A small part of the land is owned by the coucil but is leased to the club for the next 75 or more years. (So Goff's affordable housing project will commence in 2094.

2 Essentially swampland, it is not suitable for residential deveopment. (Liquefaction, anybody?)

3 The club pays a commercial rate of ground rent AND council rates.

4 The course is open to any member of the public who wishes to pay modest green fees. (Denarau golf course in Fiji charges a hell of a lot more than Remuera.)

All in all, Goff simply has confirmed for one and for all that he is a loose mouthed idiot.

I heard 'him' when he said ... 'We're gonna build the Wall and Mexico is gonna pay for it' and today .... 'The Wall just got 10 foot higher' .... responding to former Mexican President Vincnte Fox's comment - 'We're not paying ... and he should know that'.

Walls are pretty useless things by themselves. You can dig under them, fly over them or go round them. They don't have a great track record witness the Berlin Wall and, given the fact there is already a fence in place (and how effective is that?), the reality is that a Wall, by itself, will not change the dynamic. It is populist rhetoric by Trump designed to capture the votes from people seeking an easy answer to a complex problem. Building a Wall is NOT the answer.

The reality is that 'Wetbacks' are a huge source of cheap labour to the US. Unscrupulous employers right across the spectrum are prepared to turn a blind eye to 'illegals' and pay them under the table and minimal wages in an attempt to maximise profits. That, coupled with the fact the a child born in the US to illegal immigrant parents is classified as a US citizen (by courtesy of the 14th Amendment designed protect the children of African slaves) and the rationale for a Wall as the answer to the problem is shot to pieces.

Want to solve the problem ... then address those two issues. Therein is the answer. To date, not too many takers.

Ok, while the Coalition Government in Australia has scored some notable successes I am saddened to see that Malcolm Turnbull has walked away from any serious reform of their taxation system and, in doing so, has consigned the country to years of budget deficits with no pathway forward to repaying debt.

He is emulating the excesses of the Bush and Obama administrations which have seen hundreds of trillions of dollars added to the National Debt which will never be repaid thus bequeathing a legacy of interest payments to future generations yet unborn.

In 2008 Labour's 'gift' to the incoming National coalition government was a budget out of control exacerbated by the GFC and the Canterbury earthquakes. Key and English worked to put a place a pragmatic solution which avoided the 'slash and burn' favored by some. They took considerable stick from those who parroted the need for restraint (as long as it didn't effect them or their pet projects) and instead held the line on government spending ... something that Labour could never do. They are, by definition, a spending Party.

I can acknowledge the Coalition Government in Australia was hamstrung by an electoral system that has so called third and forth Parties along with several ratbag Independents holding the balance of power in the Senate and able to block budgets. Abbott should have called their bluff and gone for a double dissolution. In all probability the Coalition Government would have been returned and it is likely they would have won control of the Senate.

That chance has been and gone and, with the general election scheduled for later this year, all bets are off. The Coalition will do nowt to rock the boat and continue to spend money it doesn't have ... the announcement yesterday of a $195b increase in defence spending over the next decade is a case at point.

I though Malcolm Turnbull could 'do' numbers. Perhaps he can but the reality is that he hasn't the balls to address the structural changes needed in the economy to help make Australia the 'lucky country' once again.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

No we havn't bought much for three and a half K and that will only grow as donors renege now they know the gunnint is involved.
NZ Inc has bought the sand spit and a bit of the scrub under threat from the "rising sea levels" all those subscribing to AGW/ climate change rort understand so well now the science is settled!

This was how a real estate agent makes wet dreams, getting priceless publicity in a competitive tender where one party publically and increasingly kept raising the ante.

Enos (he knows everything and gives you the shits) Morgan attempted to get a leg over for his immediate family on the cheap with exclusive rights but failed spectacularly when he underestimated the almost bottomless pit of public stupidity

Give a little accept a slippage between pledge and pay of around 10% so when say $200 k plus evaporates and that will be optimistic now donors know Aunty Maggie is the backstop, and adding in the KDS factor.

So how desperately did we actually need this bit of sand, it is a very small part of .0001% of what we already own and can't actually control, develop or even keep free of noxious weed invasion.

New Zealand has been sold a Pup and the vendor, Wellington developer will probably join Toll Holdings Australia in their annual celebration of how to rob taxpayers with assistance from idiot ministers of the crown.

Geez I have a bridge planned to cross Akaroa harbour to Wainui from Greens Point in initial planning and I need some more dosh to get started so Aunty Maggie how much have you got.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

It's hotting up in the race to the Presidency and from where I sit right now the most likely scenario come November is Trump vs Clinton.

In the 'Blue' corner its all over bar the shouting and while Sanders has managed to energize a whole new constituency the reality is that the cards are heavily stacked against him. About one-sixth of the delegates to the nominating convention are designated 'super-delegates'. They are unpledged and free to vote as they think fit and comprise 20 distinguished Party leaders (Past Presidents/Vice-Presidents/Party Chairmen); 20 Democrat Governors; 46 Democrat Senators; 193 Democrat Members of the House of Representatives and 426 elected members of the Democrat National Committee.

As it stands right now Clinton has 439 super-delegates and Sanders just 16. Add in the pledged delegates and remembering the Democrats allocate delegates using proportional representation (as opposed to the Republicans where the winner takes all) and Clinton has 502 delegates to Sanders 70. It is difficult to see how Sanders can possibly amass the 2,382 delegates needed to nominate. The question then arises as to what happens with the Sanders constituency. Some will hold their noses and vote for Clinton but, given that recent polls have it that only one-third of American voters rate her as honest and trustworthy, some will quietly (or not so quietly) pack their tent and exit the election.

In the Red corner the Trump machine rolls on. Right now he has 70 delegates of the 1,236 required to nominate followed by Cruz with 11 and Rubio 10. In reality it's down to three possibly four candidates. In certain respects the race mirrors that of the Democrats. Non establishment Republicans (Trump and Cruz) vs establishment Republicans (Rubio and Ohio Governor Kasich). My gut feeling is that Cruz has peaked and some well publicised electoral gaffes by his team will see his campaign stall leaving Trump as the anti-establishment figurehead. It will be interesting to see where the 10% +/- Republicans supporting Jeb Bush end up. One would expect they will, in the main, go for an establishment candidate. But, given that the two anti-establishment candidates have a combined vote of between 55-65% it is difficult to see Trump headed off.

The one 'nigger' in the woodpile for Trump is the continued debate over whether he is a Conservative to the true-believer Tea-Party rump of the Party. Surveys show a sizeable group of Republican voters remain opposed to the Trump candidacy either because they don't think he can win the White House against Clinton or because they don't believe his proclaimed support for a variety of conservative positions that most Republicans adhere to. Case at point. Years ago Trump said her strongly supported abortion rights but he now tells voters he's pro-life. Some are saying Trump's transformation on the issue is "a conversion of convenience". What will they do?

Whatever, the race is becoming interesting.

Updated ... With Trump winning the Nevada caucuses the delegate count for the Republicans now stands as Trump 81, Cruz and Rubio 17 apiece, Kasich 6 and Carson 4.

I don’t hate the Lockwood flag. (Probably because I’m not a vexillologist or design expert, unlike everyone else on twitter, suddenly.) I like it more than our current flag. But I think I’ll still vote to keep the current one, mostly because I don’t really like the Lockwood, and if we vote for it we’re stuck with it for many generations. But if we keep the old flag we’ll be forced to change it during the transition to a republic, which may happen during my lifetime.

Also, while I also don’t hate John Key, it did occur to me during the first referendum – when I opened my ballot and stared down at the four options for change, two of which were almost identical, three of which were very similar, and the fourth obviously chosen as a spoiler to promote the other three – that Key’s government really did do a shitty, horrible, clumsy job at this process, and that is not immaterial. Voters like me do get to judge him and punish him for that.

I realise that 2.5 million voters will never agree on the same design. But there's more to it than what Danyl says. I am seriously pissed off at the political subterfuge and subliminal politicking that is now going on, in an attempt to sway public opinion in order to get the result the government (John Key?) wants. Denying that exists is silly - Stevie Wonder could see it.

So probably for the first time in my life, I'm voting the same way as Danyl.

John Andrew Howland father of Jayden Andrews Howland deceased ( died on February 22 2011 as a result of injuries sustained when masonry crushed his bus, aged 15) is not anything close to what The Media Party are claiming in portraying what provoked the scurrilous attack on The Hon Gerry Brownlee as the Fifth anniversary remembrance service in the Botanical Gardens was breaking up.

TMP would want you to believe that this wretched man facing what would have been his son's 20th birthday was motivated by apparent failings of the Government in their response to the disaster that has variously had a seriously deleterious effect on many thousands of current resident and now departed or dead victims of that tumultuous day.

Mr Howland currently lives in Greymouth on the opposite SI coast from Christchurch.
It is alleged he had no property damage from the event and therefore no insurance issues awaiting resolution.
His Son was in the care of an Aunt who had actually suffered grievously with her house subsequently red zoned while coping with Jayden's death while he had been living with her.
Mr Howland is about to commence a Home Detention sentence for having multiple child pornographic images on his PC.
He has seven convictions for such images on a personal computer.

OK so published reports of the actual contents of the two litre container he dumped on Mr Brownlee in what was a planned attack, had ingredients common in many kitchen pantries so no actual serious intent to cause actual bodily harm. Who knew that at the time, only the one deranged individual.
However as the US commenter suggested with regard to the dildo tosser, in his country she could have been shot and justifiably so.
With the benefit of hindsight was Plod's decision not to charge her, a contributing factor that further emboldened this sick man.

People suggest that I am just a grumpy old man and there is plenty of evidence to support that theory but here is a glaring example of bias against anything that might be in any way connected to John Key and or his government, with a manufactured pile of attempted sympathy inducing garbage and an almost total absence of facts that make the actions of this clearly damaged person merely those of a sicko and no actual connection to a politically motivated activity.

Brownlee with his request to security to just let the man go and the Aunt who has possibly put up with far too much from this warped mind are those who are emerging with their reputations intact while the moronic media manipulators are being exposed as the charlatans they really are.

The bill to restore elected representatives to attempt to run the Canterbury Regional Council, quaintly named Ecan, when it previously demonstrated for nineteen straight years it could not run a beerfest in a brewery, leading to Wellington putting the totally dysfunctional outfit into statuary management under appointed commissioners, is a racist doozy.

Nga Tahu the bunch of now mixed blood descendants of the rampaging thugs who by conquest gained almost total domination of the South Island by the time civilisation arrived, will have two members of the partially elected council that is planned to be a step to full democracy restoration.

Now these noble savages as represented today by many with little more Maori blood than thousands of other mixed blood citizens have, following the awarding of thousands of acres of arable land deemed too dry for farming mid 20th century and planted in pinus radiata, as part of their "Treaty Settlement", cleared most of it with plans to clear almost all of it and create a Dairy Behemoth on very 'leeching prone' terrace lands bounded by two significant waterways. The Waimakariri at Eyrwell and the Hurunui at Balmoral.
If anyone thought sixty Beef cows being taken to the edge of Lake Taylor for some hydration relief in high summer was an environmental problem, well you aint seen nothing yet.

Very few Cantabrians have any understanding of the draconian regime currently in situ for monitoring effluent, nutrient and biological contamination threats or even water allocation and consent to use, all under the direct control of Ecan or as it became famously known, with the elected council constituted under an automatic urban and therefore socialist bent, as Ecant.
Now with entrepreneurial Canterbury to be under the jurisdiction of the socialist embedded majority of Christchurch City and the muddying influence of the regions biggest by a long way, Charity involving itself in the dairy boom, will the two Ngai Tahu representatives withdraw from all the biggest legislated functions of Ecan on the "conflict of interest" grounds.

"YEAH RIGHT".
Both rivers have serious summer low flow issues and Ecan has struggled to balance water use within parameters of fairness and equity, now I guess with this latest apartheid adjunct delivered by central government, much of the potential problem for the special people will evaporate faster than irrigation in a Nor Wester as, in cahoots with the socialist numpties that will emanate from the city wearing their cloaks of ignorance, the way forward for the Tax cheats will be rapidly cleared.

Well done Mr Key and your racial policy towards a significant segment of our now very tarnished one people, pity you didn't make any provision for the Celtic peoples and I guess it will be but one minor step to extend your apartheid theories to the followers of the religion of peace when their numbers deserve such representation, as they become a deprived minority.

The latest moron tossing something at a MP to appear in Christchurch District Court this morning.

Surely he will be remanded to Hillmorton Hospital for a Psychiatric Report and then restrained under the Mental Health Act.

Almost slam dunk really.Update;
Stuff reports the poor man lost a fifteen year old son when the bus his son was in was crushed in the event on February 22 2011 by falling building facades
Shit happens, gee he does need help, an act of God or totally unforeseen genuine accident, take your choice but it was five years ago.

Yes it was a tragedy but is that a reason to toss a mixture of who knew what over a Cabinet minister.
I note Gerry asked his security to release the man they had restrained but I guess when hatred and scenes of a nurse who maybe should be a patient being lauded in media, and the fat arse Bradford Woman blocking traffic and pedestrians occurring without sanction it is a small step to tip Mr Howland over to commit common assault.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Britons will vote on Thursday 23 June (why do they always hold elections/referenda on Thursdays?) whether or not to leave the EU. This after Prime Minister Cameron secured a raft of concessions that will give the UK special status in the 28 member bloc.

I don't have a particular view on the matter and so I await with some interest what no doubt will be a learned dissertation from our titled friend, font of all knowledge, on the issue.

Suffice to say the Tories are split on the matter with a number of high profile Tories like Justice Secretary Michael Glove and former leader Iain Duncan-Smith campaigning in support of an OUT vote. Labour too is split on the issue with Jeremy Corbyn, who has been a critic of the EU and who voted to leave in the 1975 referendum, now saying Labour will campaign to remain. That decision is opposed by 'Labour Leave' headed by MP and former Minister of Sport Kate Hoey and backed by millionaire businessman, John Mills, the parties biggest individual donor in recent years.

The Lib Dems are committed to staying as is the Scottish National Party. The UK Independence Party is at the forefront of the Brexit campaign. That's their raison d'etre and common cause sure makes for strange bedfellows with hard left ex Labour MP George Galloway welcomed to the stage by UKIP leader Nigel Farange at a 'Grassroots Out' campaign event urging punters to vote to leave.

So the next couple of months will be interesting. One thing for sure ... if the UK votes OUT then David Cameron is toast. A sub plot to all of this is which way Boris Johnson (outgoing Lord Mayor of London and newly elected MP) will jump. In that respect I note that Eurosceptic Tory MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has warned Johnson that his hopes of becoming Tory leader will vanish if he doesn't back Brexit.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Underneath the house I have a sort of 'Man Cave' which includes an infernal bike type machine where at the not so subtle of urging of memsahib I am banished each day to grind out 20 km.

It's the only time I get to listen to Radio NZ Concert and today they featured Mendelssohn's 2nd in D minor performed by the London Festival Orchestra directed by Ross Pople.

I grew up with and went to school with Ross in Hawera. He came from a hugely talented musical family and together with his sister Sonya and elder brother Ted they formed the Pople trio. Their collective ability was outstanding but Ross, who was a cellist, shone through as something special. He was awarded scholarships to study in England at the Royal Academy of Music, the Paris Conservatoire and the Chigiana Academia, Sienia. After graduating and at the age of 23 Yehudi Menuhin appointed him to be the principal cellist of the Bath/Menuhin Festival Orchestra. He was subsequently appointed principal solo cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

In 1980 Ross took over the helm of the London Festival Orchestra which he now owns. He made the LFO a household name through his summer festival called 'Cathedral Classics'. He has taken the orchestra on tours of Europe, the Americas and the 'Far East'. Also associated with the Pople name is the Southbank series at the Barbican, the annual Remembrance Sunday Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, the festival Dutch Cornucopia and the Virtuoso Piano series at Cadogan Hall.

Ross returns to New Zealand for our school Standard Five Class Reunions in honour of the redoubtable Ms Jones (unrepentant and proud Communist but hugely talented teacher and subject of a previous blog). Fantastic company. He has a holiday home in Cumbria to escape the grind of London.

I've met a number of hard working Kiwis here who have struggled mightily because they were unable to receive unemployment benefits upon loss of a job after three or four years.

Congratulations to both John Key and Malcolm Fraser for turning back one of Helen Clark's worst most unfair decisions. Like Bill Shorten, she sold out her own people. That seems to be the Labour/Labor way.

If you thought the 'dildo' bounce in the latest Roy Morgan poll was good stuff, just wait until this deal hits the polls. Most Kiwis have family members or know someone who is struggling in Aussie.

Friday, February 19, 2016

So Brendan Horan has been cleared of all the allegations about him. You can access the story here.

Appears it was a hit job on Horan by his half brother Peter, a former bankrupt, and a second half brother, Mana, a sickness beneficiary which Winston Peters bought hook, line and sinker. Seems the concept of 'natural justice' has no place in Peters' lexicon.

If the news as reported by TV1 that the PM has managed to negotiate with Malcolm Turnbull a pathway for NZ citizens who have lived in Australia for five years or more to become Australian citizens is correct ... then he deserves our congratulations.

As with any announcement the devil will be in the detail.

Fixing up the mess that Helen Clark created when she rolled over to Australian pressure in 2002.

Well done John Key.

Updated ... I see that both David Shearer from Labour and Kennedy Graham from the Greens have acknowledged Key for a job well done. That won't have done them any favours with their respective Party leaders.

Classic whodunit. And like all good whodunits all you need to do is follow the money. Who is likely to benefit from the leak? Not the Government, they need leaks like a hole in the head.

That leaves only one other possibility ... the Bain camp. They were given a copy of the report. If the media reports are correct and it is unfavourable to them then you have both motive and opportunity.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

As a student of history you occasionally pick up some amusing anecdotes. I like this one from Montague Browne, Winston Churchill's private secretary in his later years.

Churchill was sitting at a table in a Monte Carlo casino when Frank Sinatra passed by. Sinatra paused and shook Churchill's hard firmly. On leaving he was heard to say 'I've been waiting to do that for ages'.

I seem to recall when David (I'm running this show now) Cunliffe was a cabinet minister there was a bit of a hoohaa about the same sort of thing. Except in the case of Cunliffe's Labour administration, the amount scammed by the Bros was over $500 million. Of course that was when the country was enjoying massive surpluses so they had to get rid of the money somehow to take the pressure off calls for tax cuts.

There's an old saying up North:-

Nobody is as smart as the Maori when it comes to getting hold of money and, once he's got it, nobody is as stupid.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The news that the 'Shh - Adult Fun Spot' brothel in Hawera is holding an 'Open Home' purportedly in support of the charity 'Kai Kitchen' with provides meals to some 40 children in the district is nothing more than a tacky attempt of self-promotion.

The Open Home (restricted to Adults) will see staff members giving members of the public tours of the brothel and answering their questions .... the mind boggles ... how often do you change the sheets, or how much for a ....?

I would have much more respect for the owner of the brothel (who is also a committee member of Kai Kitchen) if she had made a private donation to the charity rather the pimping on children to promote her business.

One of the few times I have ever publicly rebuked a public servant tending her formal advice to a committee I chaired was when she suggested that the Mongrel Mob could be likened to a Masonic Lodge and that they should not be judged on perception.

Silly little 'bint'. The Mongrel Mob is for-square and centre into drug manufacture and distribution, robbery, murder and general mayhem. They have no respect for their 'women' or any women; they have no respect for society and its norms. They are our equivalent of the Mafia and should be dealt to as you would deal to rabid dogs.

So, given that, perhaps it's time that serious consideration be given to declaring the Mongrel Mob a 'prohibited organisation'. What might that mean ... translated it could mean that those who choose to be members of the 'mob' are denied the benefits and entitlements that accrue to 'normal' members of society. That they are classed as outlaws in the land and are treated as such. No entitlement to social housing, no entitlement to benefits, no entitlement to medical treatment or anything else.

Renounce the mob and you're back in just like Selwyn Clarke, wannabe 28 (Maori) Battalion war veteran who this week surrendered himself to the Courts and got his WDP back (see my earlier post).

Against the Bill of Rights. Of course but you can equally argue that by their actions they have abrogated those rights and that anyway there is a path way forward for them should they so choose to take it.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

You gotta be joking. The CrimdotCon appeal is set down for 29 August in the High Court with eight weeks set aside for the hearing. Remembering too that the appeal can only be on points of law.

In the jurisdiction I am involved with appeals to the High Court are normally concluded within three/four months. Seven months to the hearing date; two months for the hearing; an almost guaranteed 'reserved decision' and all this in respect of a decision by Dawson R which many legal commentators described as 'particularly robust'.

CrimdotCon's legal team of Messrs Mansfield and Cogan and Ms Wild will be pulling out all the stops in arguing black is white. Just goes to show what money can do ... hold on, the bugger continually claims he is living in a state of penury.

Sigh.

Updated ... the Law Commission has just recommended an extensive overhaul of the extradition process designed to avoid the inordinate delays occasioned by appeals and judicial reviews. You can access the document here

Friday, February 12, 2016

Last night I flew back to the BoI after 36 hours in the Capital and to/from the airport you drive past the Basin Reserve which some have described as the 'home of New Zealand cricket'. Whatever, right now it is a disgrace.

While the ground proper is up to standard; while the practice facilities have been improved; while the trees surrounding the embankment make for a great ambience; the reality is that the public facilities are third-world.

The RA Vance Stand, 40 years old and desperately in need of a makeover; The old No. 1 Stand condemned as an earthquake risk and disused and that's it.

The Basin could be so much better but unless the WCC and Cricket NZL get their act together its future as a test match venue must be suspect.

Please divorce this post from the train-wreck happening on on ground as I write this.

The moron masquerading as a Judge had already amply exhibited his ineptitude when he was overturned spectacularly on appeal when the Judge alone verdict of guilty on John Banks was not only reversed, but the higher court took the very rare step of completely exonerating the ex MP and Mayor of Auckland because relying on the veracity of an obese German crook and overstayer was not preferable to evidence from John and Amanda Banks that was deemed wrong in law.

Apparently Justice Wyllie is beyond learning when he again demonstrated his peculiarly strange view of what Parliament and the voters have embraced with Garrett's Three strikes Law, when, accompanied with a symbolic wearing of the cloak of crim hugging that sustains Kelvin Davis he declined to employ Three Strikes on a piece of dog shit who deserved no mercy on the grounds it would be manifestly unjust.

Well Mr Moron Wyllie that bastard was exactly what Mr Garrett and all those who support the clear intention Three Strikes seeks to do to prevent actions such as yours from continuing.
If you struggle with leaving your basic love for those who would terrify and assault the mores that those exposed to such perpetrated trauma must endure out of your work as our employee then perhaps a return to a career as a flea bitten lawyer is a viable option, as a Judge you are manifestly unjust.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

I watched an hour or so of Iowa, towards the end, and the first hour today of New Hampshire.

Three things struck me about New Hampshire.

1 The networks called the winners with only five or six percent of the votes counted. I thought that was a bit brave but as time went by, the winning margins increased.

2 An early exist poll put a very high percentage of Democrat voters specifying trust and honesty as their top priorities. Hence Clinton's resounding defeat. The younger people prefer an old honest commie to a lying money grubbing old bitch.

3 The only talking point of any interest concerning Clinton was whether she could keep Sanders' lead below a twenty percent margin. She couldn't.

Gary Muggins who rides a motorbike, usually sponsored, wants to help humanity by plunging a bit of the dosh his spawn created, on the beachfront property that a couple of well meaning guys want to crowd fund with the aim of adding it to the Abel Tasman Park.
Only good fulla of the week wants to have it available for his tribe's use until they are sick of the sand-flies, wasps and its seriously limited access.

What a seriously retarded poser, many thousands of people have pledged money, no strings attached while self opinionated Gary wants a discount benefit.
Sorry Gar, first up you will need to add in a pledge from yourself to absolve the thousands of well meaning potential donors who then want out of their well intentioned commitment, following your opportunistic selfish gatecrashing

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Until Iowa stole a march on them with their caucuses New Hampshire was the first State out of the starting blocks to hold its Presidential Primary election. And since 1960 all eligible voters in the small hamlet of Dixville Notch (pop 12) have gathered at their 'local' (The Balsams) where, on the stroke of midnight, they cast their votes which are tallied and their moment in the sun (moon) passes as quickly as it arrived.

Dixville Notch used to be 'hard-shell' Republican. In the 1960 Presidential election it voted 9-0 for Nixon over Kennedy. Four years later it voted 8-1 for Goldwater over Johnson (caused a stir in the town ... who was the traitor). In later years the contest became more even as the Republicans relinquished what had been their vice like grip on the small New England States.

Not an overly good record in picking winners. In 1984 and on the Democrat side they choose 'Fritz' Hollings (3 votes) over 'Fritz' Mondale, eventual nominee (2 votes) while four years later they choose Dick Gephardt (4 votes) over Paul Simon (3 votes) with Michael Dukakis, eventual Democrat nominee, failing to trouble the scorers.

Bit more sedate of the Republican side although in 2012 John Huntsman Jnr tied with Mitt Romney (the eventual nominee) 2 votes each with Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich each picking up one vote apiece.

And so to the 2016 vote just announced. In the blue corner it was Bernie Sanders all the way (4 votes) and the sheila zip. In the red corner it was John Kasich heading Donald Trump 3-2. Everyone else 0.

9 votes cast in 1960 and 9 votes cast in 2016. Clearly boom-town not and contraception in Dixville Notch alive and well (no pun intended).

Updated ... with the hamlets of Millfield and Hart's Landing also voting early and on the Democrat side Sanders now leads Clinton 17-9 while for the Republicans Trump, Kasich and Cruz are in the lead with 9 votes each.

The morons are claiming John Key(s) has "Broken a Promise" he made in the light of H1 diverting to the Marae South of Akaroa after suffering a bit of hows your father at the hands of the Hadfields, in 2000.
Mr Key had little choice with all the conflicting options from Paint Face and his equally deficient cohorts.

Sorry people, Mr Key correctly refused to be a part of the disreputable rabble led by a face painted nonentity who elevated himself to a prominence with no clear apparent standing, legal, cultural, or political with the full support of the Media Party, with a suggestion that as the spokesperson for a very small part of one percent of Nga Puhi he could proscribe what the Prime Minister could address at the little "johnnie cum lately outfit next door to the treaty grounds where Nga Puhi demonstrate annually they would struggle to organise an orgy in a brothel.
Hang on that is pretty much what they have done year on year since Kirk, Rata and then the idiot Palmer used executive power to change how a majority of new Zealand viewed the racial coexistence between Maori and the rest of us.
What started as a Naval commemoration with zero Maori participation after WW2, ceremonies at Busby's little crib grew until the socialist rent a mob, Hadfield branch, made Te Tii the Waitangi Eve riots.

David Seymour's suggestion that the annual commemoration of the first signing of the pacification treaty that incidentally immediately appealed to many Maori leaders as a way to stop inter tribal warfare and conquest, be focussed annually at the many subsequent sites and by the time it returns to Waitangi in around 20 years time, sanity might have settled on the clearly most dysfunctional tribal outfit of all.

As for old paint face he can go and involve himself in sex and travel and be relegated to the nonentity status his idiotic actions deserve.
To the Morons who are desperately suggesting John Key(s) has "broken a promise", sheesh had the man died he could have been similarly accused.

Modern behaviours have rendered a much valued trait of days gone by to a status that is rapidly going out of importance as desirable.

To be of good character, once was a recommendation as to a trustworthy and thoroughly good bastard with little else needed.

One very reliable marker of such an admirable trait could be found on a sports field where vagaries of what the eye could discern by umpires/referees/judges would be over-ruled by the player at the centre of a maelstrom immediately putting it right.
Never more poignantly demonstrated than in the game of cricket, the game full of legendary acts of self destruction when batsmen who knew they had touched the ball with glove and or bat, saw the wicket keeper take the ball and "walked".

My first encounter with a seriously unsporting act by a cricketer came with an "Aussie" by the name of Matthews who claimed a boundary catch with his foot clearly on the boundary rope in a game against a NZ team.

To highly competitive Greg Matthews, it was not cheating it was merely playing to the Umpires call and in the days before scrutiny to the degree of sometimes frustration in 2016 un challenged.
Such is a growing attitude that the wearers of The Baggy Green have since made an art form while a more cynical person might have dismissed his action by saying it was just 'not cricket'.

Fast forward to yesterday when the deciding game of the Chappel/Hadlee trophy was in the balance with Australia seemingly making the necessary move to domination from the bat of Mitchell Marsh when a ball from Matt Henry caught an inside edge, cannoned down onto his boot and flew to the hands of a mystified bowler who raised an inquiring hand and looked back to the umpire in what would have, in a less challenging situation, had the dreaded finger raised with out further ado.
After the fifteen seconds available to either captain for a challenge elapsed the big screen played the incident and the crowd erupted. Australian scribes described that reaction at the "feral" end of crowd behaviour, the third umpire confirmed to those in the middle it was out and the right decision made.
Now far too many who should consult history before making total asses of themselves are crying foul.
The world champions at sledging and manipulation of adjudicators, found themselves trying to suggest a batsman who was clearly out had been hard done by.
Stop bloody crying.

Two things that could have resolved the matter, one with great kudos for all;
Mitchell Marsh, son of Selector and former Aussie cricketer Geoff Marsh, brother of Shawn Marsh could have walked. If not after he hit it onto his toe, hard to miss that, and watched it balloon to a still in shock bowler, then immediately on seeing what the so called baying for blood spectators saw on the big screen. That people, would have required that old fashioned trait, "Character"
The other way could have seen the entire NZ Team doing what the Indians have made their own Modus Operandi and appealed for a full minute to remove any doubt that an appeal had been made. A behaviour largely absent from our way of doing business, thanks be.

Mr Marsh junr you must have known when that ball landed on the soft upper of your shoe, that there was very little reduction in impact from having the pitch involved and the TV replay confirmed it.
Gobbing off that it was bullshit and departing with a spray of profanity just wasn't cricket, you were actually OUT.
So sad, too bad, what should have been a doddle became a bad day at the office so just suck it up.
BTW Adam Milne's dismissal, unchallenged, looked very dodgy but that is just cricket as it becomes when the arbitrary, limited to one, challenge has been used.

A public pool in Vienna, a twenty something immigrant was apparently in need of sexual gratification after weeks of abstinence.

He followed a ten year old boy into the changing area and buggered the poor little fellow, whose screams went unheard, to the point the victim needed hospitalisation for his injuries.

The "immigrant" admitted his offence and claimed it was due to enforced abstinence. Gee that would be a first surely
I guess no camels and very limited goats made the brutal buggering alright for one who has lived in a religious culture where such relief is apparently so often a struggle to be satisfied.

What is Islam's direction in the one and a half millennia old and still relevant scriptures, on Mrs Palmer and her five daughters, or is that now "feeding the chickens" ?

As if such an abomination to civilised people is not bad enough, an apologist tried to reduce the offending with a reference to a now apparent withdrawal of a "rape" complaint in neighbouring Germany from a girl against "immigrants.
For all that it really matters nowt, if there was any doubt to the authenticity of this brutal, humiliating and potentially permanent damage to the ten year old boy then such garbage is demolished, if not by the hospital bit, at the very least the quoted admission of guilt even if mistakenly made in the very different legal environment of Austria over Iraq
I am guessing growing up in a society where a rape victim is likely to be stoned to her death for
"adultery" any vain hope of assimilation faces some massive barriers.
That said it is an ongoing mystery to me how almost without exception the luvvies seem to be able to ignore the male Muslim attitude to women and sexual assault as a problem to be addressed here in civilised New Zealand.
When the Malaysian military underling went ape over Tania Billingsley it was all about "the gummint" allowing the perp to escape under misapplied "diplomatic process", his Islamist attitude to women and his daft attitude to his sexual "needs" never came to the screaming eagles radar screen.
By the time of his sentencing what may have been an extremely scary episode for Ms B had morphed into soap opera.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Unless you live in a cave or under a rock, you will have noticed that Auckland has a housing crisis. I don't think the word "crisis" is hyperbole. Net migration flows are the strongest they have been in 20 years; and land restrictions are worse than they usually are. The only bright side (pun intended - see below) to the market is interest rates are likely to stay very, very low for a while, and unemployment numbers are strong. This means people in jobs being able to afford ridiculous Auckland house prices, or its even more obscene rents.

When these factors clash, you would expect a government that favours the market approach to solving economic and social issue to put that approach into practice. The last thing we need in Auckland right now is more cost and regulation added to the mix. The Auckland housing market isn't working, as Bill English noted. I doubt the government has any real concern about resolving it, because if it did, it wouldn't have made Nick Smith the responsible Minister.

Instead of using market techniques and less regulation to try and solve the crisis, the Government has taken the opposite approach: It introduced silly rules as a political response.

The bright-line test (a Capital Gains Tax that National said it wouldn't introduce), which was the second of those silly rules, is now being implemented through the Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax) Bill. This creates another withholding tax payable at point of land sales within two years. Again, this Bill is merely a political response to the shrills of Winston Peters and Phil Twyford. It won't have any affect on rising house prices, and it will actually have the opposite effect to its intent.

To explain how, I need to summarise the Bill.

The Bill creates a new withholding tax (Resident Land Withholding Tax or RLWT) which requires lawyers to calculate the correct amount of capital gains withholding tax payable by an offshore land developer at point of sale. As a capital gains tax, it is ring-fenced against losses and other expenses. In other words, unlike tax paid on profit which has allowable deductions, the capital gains RLWT doesn't allow these.

Developers I have dealings with pay their tax in New Zealand. But they do it in their annual income tax return, which have allowable deductions. And this return is done many months after the income has accrued - by 1 April the following year as we all know. The capital gains RLWT will overturn this and require at least 28% to be deducted by lawyers at point of sale. There are many other complicated parts of it which will require lawyers involved in land developments to become accountants; and there are civil penalties proposed for wrongdoing. Developers will be able to recover overpaid RLWT at year end in their annual return, but of course this just adds another layer of tax complication which is puzzling for a government of this persuasion, and very puzzling considering the McLeod Report recommended fewer taxes, and less complexity.

The RLWT will have two initial effects: First, it will severely affect a developer's cashflow (because they are liable for the tax at point of sale); and second, it will add cost to all transactions from developments.

The other main effect it will have is also counter-intuitive to what the Government says it wants, and certainly contrary to what the Productivity Commission (scarily) recommended: It will encourage land-banking. It will do this because developers will not want their cashflow to be affected, and their costs to rise, by entering into sales within two years of the land being purchased. So they will hold off on their developments.

Of course the normal process for developers is to show their bank at least 80% of the development sold before bank lending is confirmed. So developers enter into sales quickly based on draft plans; and usually certainly within two years of buying the land. The Bill applies to subdivisions and, as mentioned, includes offshore developers. Indeed, one major company affected by this will be Fletcher Residential, a wholly-owned company of Fletcher Building.

This option creates an economic distortion as it creates a “lock-in” effect. In other words, it creates an incentive for people to hold property for longer than two years to avoid the bright-line test.

For example, a person may avoid selling a property at the highest price, within two years to avoid the bright-line test. The person who is offering the highest price can presumably put the property to its most valuable use. This means that people may not undergo otherwise efficient transactions and put property to its most valuable use due to the bright-line test.

The other daft and disappointing aspect of this shambles was the way the government handled it. Submissions went out for public input just before Christmas and closed on 26 January. This Christmas timeframe gave no ability for anyone to oppose it, or write a decent submission pointing out the deficiencies. The Minister simply described the Bill as "fair", bit he didn't say to whom it was fair.

The RLWT proposal in the bill, together with the new bright-line test and changes to collect better tax information about buyers and sellers of residential property will help to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of tax on gains from property sales,” says Mr McClay.

Bill English isn't stupid. He sated the obvious - that the market isn't functioning properly. The way to correct it is to address the supply issues resulting from the demand. You cannot do it by adding taxes, cost, complexity and rewarding landbanking. All of these will make the situation worse and to me are the antithesis of what this government should be doing.

I write this with some sadness. There are good folk in Ngapuhi but the reality is that inter-tribal differences have made them almost ungovernable. And so it is with the TiTi Marae; be it the refusal to grant Prime Minister Clark speaking rights or the threat of violence against Prime Minister Key to stop him coming onto the Marae, orchestrated by one of the Marae trustees; the Marae leadership has lost the plot in spades.

And talk about mixed messages. An imperious letter sent by the trustees to the Prime Minister's office laying down various conditions at variance with what had, up until now, been the norm. No matter that speakers 'welcoming' him were going to harangue him on all matter of issues with the TPPA featuring prominently, Key could not respond. Instead he was expected to hold his tongue and instead argue his case in 'Hone's tent' (doesn't that designation just about sum it all up) later in the day.

And was that same letter sent to Labour, the Greens and NZ First? Not on your Nelly and, to add insult to injury, they were allowed to talk politics at their welcoming even although that too was chaotic with Andrew Little forced to wait an hour at the Marae gate in the teaming rain while the welcome to the Greens was played out. Clearly the notion that all Parties would be welcomed on the Marae together went out the window too.

Back to the matter of violence. It hung heavy in the air and, no matter that Hone said that he would protect John Key, he would not be the only one in the firing line. The rhetoric by the unwashed had been ratcheted up to the point where mob action, once started, would have quickly escalated into riot. And, if it had, the PM would have been blamed for starting it. The situation was out of control and Ngapuhi must accept collective responsibility for their omni-shambles.

TiTi Marae has no special status. The focus is and must remain on the Treaty House Grounds and the Upper Marae which is home to all the tribes.

Ngapuhi have, by their actions over the years, edited themselves out of being afforded any special status on Waitangi Day. Perhaps David Seymour has a point in arguing that each year a different tribe be designated as the host tribe for the Waitangi commemorations.

But I'll leave the final word to John Roughan (hardly a shill for the GRWC) when he said in an opinion piece a couple of days ago "What a pity Waitangi is not in the care of a better tribe, and what a pity the only face of Maori politics the public continues to see on the streets of Auckland damning an economic agreementin which 12 Pacific nations uniquely recognise New Zealand's governing Treaty."

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Svetlana Alliluyeva (Stalin) was a troubled soul forever trying (unsuccessfully) to shake off the shadow of her father and never coming to terms with her mother's (Nayda) suicide in 1932.

Just before she died in November 2011 she typed this letter to her daughter Olga. She spoke as if she were were writing it after her death. It is both beautiful and poignant (with a touch of humor at the end) .....

I am always with you, in loving way. Remember that. We who are now without bodily traits, only spirits, we love you on Earth nevertheless. Therefore, do not cry about us. Never, never cry about us. Because your cries only disturb us here. We cannot do anything about it. But we, the spirits now, always love you. We can feel it sometimes ... You can feel it sometimes ... a warm wind or breath touching your skin. That is us. That are us. I know that, since I am now, too. only a spirit, only a soul ... only? Oh, we can do a lot from here. We can protect you from disaster, we can embrace you, there ... like a warm cocoon. We can heal all your self- inflicted troubles, because from here, high above Earth, we can see very well. And we can always help you out. But never, never cry about us, rather, think about us always with a smile. We love you forever and ever. I say WE ... because we are many here, loving souls. Even my own so-perplexed mother; she finally got rid of those confusing earthly worries, and here she is a beautiful soul like she had been, indeed. We all love you. Do not cry about us. We love you. Your Mum. Sorry for bad typing, alas I did not improve even here!
I would have enjoyed meeting her.

This morning I discovered Blogger's been directing more comments than usual to the spam folder over the last two months. I've made them live now, but that's not much use for things that were posted weeks ago.

Apologies to those whose comments never appeared. If we delete a comment it will say "Removed by a blog administrator" - so if your comment just never shows up, feel free to email me at the address in my profile and I'll check the spam folder.

The UN, an ever more irrelevant outfit that last year outdid its self with an unbelievable new lowpoint when it appointed Saudi to chair a "human rights committee" has through another equally inane bunch of morons come to a ruling that Julian Assange has been detained in an abrogation of his rights for three years.

Now even with an acceptance that such wordsmiths might exagerate, that is beyond the pale.
Jules the albino aussie hacker who was at the centre of 'Wikileaks' undertook some R&R in Scandinavia and two females alleged that he might have gone beyond what they thought to be the program.

Threatened with possible extradition in The UK, 'Blonde' Jules decided to seek sanctuary in the Equador Embassy and with a Bobby stationed outside, there he remained.
Detained my arse, he could have come out any time, however he just might have come on to the Radar of US Justice folks who possibly had an even stronger intrest in him for publishing among other stuf the incredible pile of purlioned documents that saw then Brad, now Chelsea Manning sent to the US Federal Penitentiary for 35 years.

That people is why Blonde Jules has been hiding in that Embassy for three years althoughthe morons from the UN wish it otherwise in history.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Labour would have it that those New Zealanders deported from Australia under S501 of the Migration Act having failed the 'character' test were innocents abroad being dealt to by a cruel and uncaring Aust government aided and abetted by a heartless NZL government.

The reality is somewhat different. Just 73 days after the first deportees arrived back in the country and in the briefing papers released to the incoming Minister of Police (Judith Collins) it is revealed that already one-third of them have gone on to commit a range of crimes here ... some serious. The Police are expecting that figure to rise to 55%.

Kelvin Davis was of course the poster-boy for the deportees. It will be blood sports taken to a cruel and unusual level watching Collins eviscerate him in the House over his support for some quite nasty people.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

to the Ti Ti Marae at Waitangi. The lunatics have taken control of the asylum. The debate in Maoridom over the TPPA has become irrational egged on by the lies pedaled by opponents of the agreement.

I doubt whether anyone at Ti Ti has bothered to do the hard yards and read the agreement. If they had then the sort of canard being pedaled around the unwashed that the agreement could see Maori prisoners sent off-shore to serve their time in US and Aust prisons would be seen for what it is ... loony tunes stuff.

What has happened on the Marae is mirrored in the discord among Ngapuhi as to who has the mandate to negotiate their treaty claim(s) and you can see why. Their leadership has been highjacked by the likes of Kingi Tauroa, Sonny Tau, Hone Harawira, Margaret Mutu and the Popata brothers. And so it is with the TPPA debate ... rationality has gone out the window. In their world there is no place for informed and peaceful discussion. It's time for action and if action means forceful action then sobeit. Ngapuhi have never been shrinking violets when it comes to violence.

More moderate leaders like Rude Taylor and Rahiri Dargaville have been sidelined. Their mana counts for very little. The radical element is in charge and, with tensions high and escalating, there is the potential for real violence and people could get hurt.

The PM does not need to put himself or his people at risk. He is not dealing with rational people. Better he leaves Ti Ti to the lunatics. They are what they are and KDS rules supreme. Nothing he can say or do will cause them to change their minds.

Updated 5.17 ... reports have it that the PM will not be attending Ti Ti. Sensible decision in light of the conflicting statements from the Marae 'leadership' concerning the basis of the invitation. Enough is enough. Ti Ti has, by its own actions, edited itself out of the formal Waitangi Day celebrations. Government (any Government) should think long and hard before agreeing to return. The Treaty House grounds should be the focus for any commemoration.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Australia at six down for 41 runs and u no hu says is that the same pitch?

Two minutes later past great Aussie skipper Alan Border says "you changed the pitch at Lunchtime".

Same lady firmly told Saffa Rugby ref to have a look at the big screen one night at Lancaster Park after he made a blunder while running a touch in front of the old number three stand.
As she spoke in a loud voice there was one of those times when everything just goes quiet and her lone voice carried. Andre Watson held his poise for around five seconds before he slowly turned to see who said that, hahaha.

Adolf works as a part time volunteer at the local community centre. An hour each week, doing a bit of financial data entry and analysis and, four times each year, a leaflet drop involving 1,200 leaflets stuffed into letter boxes.

During the 1972 Australian federal election Adolf jogged off 14 kg stuffing letter boxes and when living in Auckland, during Rodney Hide's leadership, Adolf dropped thousand of leaflets for the ACT party. ACT always got my candidate vote but, being a loyal National party member, my party vote always went to the Gnats.

I always ignored 'no junk mail' signs and one day, on Sunset Rd, as I pushed the offending propaganda into the letter box, there was a shout - 'Can't you fuckin read?"

As we in this sometimes embarrassing little nation embark on another chaotic marking of the anniversary of a plenipotentiary from the mother land signing a bit of parchment to establish the British Crowns rule over a somewhat dishevelled bunch of colonial settlements and warring tribes of natives, comparisons are made every year contrasting Australia Day with our efforts.
Efforts that are every year portrayed to the world as another day of anarchy and riot when a very few part breed Maori seek to become celebrities for a day.

Of course in 1840 the Treaty then hit the road and for the South Island Maori, by then an ascendant Ngai Tahu, it was much later and I think it was well into the spring of 1840 that the last marks were made on one of by then many copies of the original.
So the first fifty on February the 6th were just the beginning of the final over 500 natives to sign one of the several copies.

Here in Akaroa the local natives who were a part of the initial drive to bring the British protections to bear after the serious depredations delivered by Te Rauparaha some ten years earlier when he sacked Kaiapoi then took out some remnants by successfully smashing then on the Onawe Peninsula, signed in the late Autumn of 1840.
The local Marae, known hereabouts as The Kaik, just south of Akaroa was where H1 chose to go in 2000 after "Tits" mob reduced her to tears the previous year.

So why February the 6th when there are a myriad of signing dates that Mr Key could mark the Treaty without providing the Hadfields and their outlaw extended family another day in history.
The absolute rudeness and lack of respect, law abiding New Zealander are left rueing annually had a Groser sent opportunity this year to tell the anti social bunch of moronic savages locked in their stoneage beliefs to involve themselves in sex and travel, The Prime Minister has far better things to do.
As if the annual shenanigans at the home town of a Prophet a few days earlier are not bad enough.

It is difficult to keep up with the various positions presented so far as the conflicting tales emerge but last I heard Mr Key was going to do it all again and Nga Puhi will enjoy another few hours as the international image of our so called civilised nation.

If February the sixth is going to be our National Day then we must find a happier and more celebratory series of ways to mark it as a fit with the aspirational nation Mr Key says we must become, and that must also consign the rabble of Nga Puhi to the place in our nations fabric their annual buffoonery deserves.

Back in the days of Helengrad, Adolf used to wake early and listen to the 0500 and 0600 RNZ news.

After a few weeks I noticed some items which had led the early bulletins failed to rate a mention after 0700. This led me to conclude the PM's staff had a roster to listen to the early news and phone RNZ with instructions on any item which might offend the Wellington politburo.

I wrote of this conclusion on No Minister at the time and was shouted down by the usual culprits.

Former head of ZDF Bonn Dr. Wolfgang Herles:- “We have the problem that – now I’m mainly talking about the public
[state] media – we have a closeness to the government. Not only because
commentary is mainly in line with the grand coalition (CSU, CDU, and
SPD), with the spectrum of opinion, but also because we are completely
taken in by the agenda laid down by the political class”.Worse than the mainstream, government controlled and poll-tax funded
media in Germany just agreeing with the ruling coalition, the stations
actually took orders on what was and was not to be reported on. He said:“…the topics about which are reported are laid down by the government.“There are many topics that would be more important than what the
government wants. But they, of course, want to deflect attention away
from what doesn’t happen. Yet what doesn’t happen is often more
important than what does happen – more important than gesture politics”.

According to Labour (aided and abetted by Winston First and the Greens) manufacturing is in crisis.

According to the Government Statistician manufacturing, in the September 15 quarter rose, 3.5% by volume and 4.2% by value (PR of 8 Dec 15).

According to Mr Little in his 'State of the Nation' speech unemployment was destined to increase.

According to figures released today unemployment dropped sharply in the last quarter to just 5.3% being the lowest in seven years. In addition 21,000 new jobs were created while wages rose 0.4% bringing the total increase for the year to 1.6%. This with the CPI running at 0.1% for 2015.

Memo for the little man ... can we please have some more crises ... please.

Apparently the delicate petals of academe are angry because a contender for the Vice Chancellorship tricked them into telling him the truth. Well boo hoo hoo.

That's what happens when you change the culture from farming to humanities.

As usual, the oleaginous Herald gets the headline wrong. The guy is not their boss. He's merely a contender for the job and is yet to accept the appointment. Given his hard nosed and innovative style, I hope he does so.

Reported in the local news last week that Maori were gearing up for a new Hikoi to start at the Cape and ending up at Waitangi to protest the TPPA, mining, sovereignty issues and .... and .... and ....

And so it was that a a couple of hours ago and driving back from a meeting up in the Far North I came upon the 'Hikoi' taking a well earned break for refreshments outside the Okaihau Liquor Store. But this was no ordinary Hikoi ... seven cars, two displaying the Hone's sovereignty flag, escorted by plod in a police ute (hope he checked the vehicles for regos and wofs because some of them looked quite 'dodgy').

So, no walking for this lot. Doing the hard yards in comfort. One thing I do know ... if Dame Whina were still around she would be boxing their ears for trampling on the mana of the Hikoi.

Monday, February 1, 2016

It seems in Australia the faux Liberals in government are spewing because the straight shooter former PM pledged Australia's support for the BB should she apply for the top UN job, rather than the earwax eating nose picker who thinks he might have a chance.

(You can see I've been taking lesson from Gravedodger.)

The fact of the matter is, Rudd was a hopeless failure on all counts as a prime minister while Clark was brilliantly successful. Rudd was a loose cannon who was despised by most of his cabinet and staff. He was not respected. What ever you may think of Helen Clark, she has considerable ability and experience running large organizations and in my view she would be a thousand times better candidate than the despicable Rudd.

It will we interesting to see how the weak and vacillating Malcolm Turnbull handles this one.

Cameron Slater has a very full post on the Albert Park Picnic that doubled as the venue for Little Andy's State Of The Nation Address, with the printed prepared speech and a video of it's delivery.
I am sorry having waded through the swill of the notes I only lasted a very short time watching the video.

Yes I am biased and very cynical at what was just yet another bribe to be paid in full with OPMs but in spite of the media party's very best efforts, it was very difficult to get any sort of a handle on the magnitude of the assembled crowd.
From the bits I watched there appeared to be every member of caucus with one glaring absentee who incidentally did not reach the notes or the very amateurish introduction, David James Shearer MBE former NZLP leader who is as we speak being air brushed from all group images of those who pretend that the current leader is "El Chapo".

One very strong bit of evidence as to the actual size of the gathering for the 'sermon on the base of the Mount', ironically sharing the name of good ole boy Davy's seat that he inherited from another "non person" who led the NZLP to 9 years in power and committed the mortal ( for all but Phil "sport" Goff) sin of voicing support for the TPP, could be garnered by using the applause generated.
My service club has meetings where we listen to a guest speaker and using that assembly of around 25 members as a guide and accepting that some guest speakers generate considerable applause, also the out door setting, it becomes very difficult to give that ripple as anything greater than three dozen at best. SWMBO who was making a Bacon and egg pie while I made a further attempt to listen to more of the video was even less generous and suggested 20 at best.
Add in that some would have been there for another reason entirely, it was Auckland Anniversary after all, and the almost perfunctory applause from a bunch of MPs including all but Shearer from Akl plus Hipkins, King and assorted other tribal members, the word Pathetic is forefront to my assessment.

Recently had a "drone" used to photograph our property for sale promotion and deducting the 150 Kms travel, the second operator who carried a movie camera through the house and the stills the actual cost of a very full coverage of the 16 acres was peanuts and with a resolution would have enabled a fairly accurate head count.

Then again as the header states that would have been very embarrassing.